Alonso, running before Raikkonen, took pole with a time of 1:11.988, beating the long standing effort of Juan Pablo Montoya (1:12.145) that will see the Colombian line his McLaren next to the Renault on the grid tomorrow.

In third place is the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella, handily placed to help Alonso's title charge. Fisichella's effort is a particularly fine one, his time of 1:12.558 set on the first flyng lap of the session.

Jenson Button confirmed the pace of the BAR-Honda's with a fine fourth place (1:12.696) to stem the disappointment of team-mate Takuma Sato who will start last having failed to set a time. Sato was due to take a ten place penalty following his coming together with Michael Schumacher at Spa Francorchamps.

Raikkonen will be disappointed with fifth (1:12.781), as his second and third sector times were close to the fastest of the session, but he could not regain the tenths lost with an unfortunate lock up early in the lap.

Star of the session has to be Christian Klien, the Austrian Red Bull driver reinforcing his reputation as an under-rated driver with an astonishing sixth place. His time of 1:12.889 is a second quicker than team-leader David Coulthard (1:13.844) who will start a lowly 16th in tomorrow's race.

Michael Schumacher can consider 7th position (1:12.978) a good effort in the recalcitrant Ferrari, while Jarno Trulli and the Toyota team were perhaps expecting more than the 1:13.041 and eighth place the Italian could muster.

Rounding out the top ten are local boys Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari (1:13.183) and Felipe Massa, his replacement next season, with 1:13.151 in the Sauber.

Ralf Schumacher will start 11th, just two tenths down on team mate Trulli's sister Toyota, and Jacques Villeneuve, mindful of a possible BMW contract next season, starts 12th in his Sauber, a similar small amount slower than team mate Massa.

In a fine 13th place is Tiago Monteiro, hereby cementing his choice as many people's 'rookie of the year' with a superb time of 1:13.387. This compares to his highly rated team-mate Narain Karthikeyan's effort of 1:14.520, and 17th place, very favourably indeed.

The Williams-BMW's struggled in vain here at Interlagos, Mark Webber 14th and local boy Antonio Pizzonia 15th, seperated by mere hundredths of a second.

With Coulthard a very disappointing 16th, the last qualifiers are Kathikeyan and the Minardi pair of Christijan Albers, in 18th, and Robert Doornbos, who spun his Minardi at turn 11 and failed to set a time.

So, with Raikkonen only fifth on the grid, are his championship hopes over, or is he, as has been the case more often than not this season, running a significantly greater fuel load than the Renault of Alonso? Or will Fernando secure the third place he needs to become World Champion, or will he take the crown with a victory tomorrow?

**Amendment - Jarno Trulli will drop to 18th position on the grid due to an earlier engine change.